With obesity rates continuing to soar in many Western countries it is perhaps no surprise that we are seeing a growing number of overweight children. But precisely what is it that results in childhood obesity?
As is often the case there is no single cause of child obesity and there are numerous factors which result in obesity in children.
For example, it is often the case that a child whose parents are overweight or obese will be overweight or obese which suggests that there may be an inherited or genetic factor to obesity. But, though this is an area which is presently being looked at, no genetic link has been found yet and it is felt far more likely that it is the eating habits in the family which result in obesity and not genetics.
There has been a marked shift in eating habits in the past few years with fast food restaurants springing up on every street corner, junk food widely available and our supermarket shelves groaning under the weight of 'convenience' foods which are often extremely high in sugar. The days of home cooking are far behind us in the majority of homes and have been replaced by take-away food or microwave meals. In fact, a growing number of parents are now choosing to take their children to fast food restaurants rather than to cook a meal at home not only because it is simpler than cooking but also because they do not have to wash up!
Additionally, we have experienced a very significant drop in levels of activity for many groups of children, fuelled in no small measure by the advent of homecomputers, video gaming machines and now the ever present mobile phone. Not surprisingly, as activity levels have fallen so children have lost their normal ability to burn off the calories gained from eating an increasing amount of fast food.
Television, magazines, the Internet and other forms of media also play an important part as they dominate our childrens' lives and junk food, fast food and confectionary manufacturers are not slow in jumping onto this particular bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity which the media provides. Many people argue that commercials have done more to encourage the increase in childhood obesity that just about anything else in recent years.
There are also various social factors at play in today's world and many children today will simply eat out of boredom. Also, they will turn to food if they find themselves stressed, angry, anxious or depressed.
At the moment a great deal of medical research is being aimed at the cause of childhood obesity and its treatment and the majority of this research is focused on solving the problem using diet and exercise once presented with an obese child. But, with child obesity continuing to grow at an alarming rate, perhaps the time has come to attack the roots of child obesity and to prevent our children from suffering from obesity in the first place.
Author Resource:-
GastricBypassFacts.info provides a wealth of information on obesity and is an excellent place to find the latest article about obesity including an article about medical studies on child obesity
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